Cardinal Cupich Dragged His Feet on Case of Child Porn Priest

Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich waited nearly a month before removing a seminary rector found in possession of male child porn. He also failed to report the priest immediately to law enforcement — a violation of the Dallas Charter — which gave the offending priest time to get rid of the primary evidence.

Father Octavio Muñoz was arrested in 2016 for possession of child porn after Cook County investigators found hundreds of DVDs and videotapes “that appear to depict minors in sexual penetration” as well as “emails containing stories of sex with children,” according to Assistant State’s Attorney Guy Lisuzzo at a 2016 bond hearing.

They also found “undergarments of a size intended for children.”

Muñoz was rector of the now-defunct Casa Jesus, a seminary for Latin Americans established by the late Cdl. Joseph Bernardin in the late 1980s for the purpose of recruiting homosexual seminarians.

Cupich quietly shut down the seminary in 2016 after multiple gay scandals, including the regular frequenting of gay bars by seminarians, as well as priests connected to Casa Jesus being accused of sexual misconduct.